Saturday, 29 October 2011

Canadian Association of University Teachers to launch national campaign to Save Library and Archives CanadaCanada NewsWireOTTAWA, Oct. 28, 2011

OTTAWA, Oct. 28, 2011 /CNW/ - On Wednesday, November 2, the Canadian Association of University Teachers will launch its national campaign: "Save Library and Archives Canada"The campaign will expose how major restructuring of Library and Archives Canada is undermining the institution responsible for preserving Canada's history and heritage. "Library and Archives Canada is cutting services and acquisitions. Unless this is reversed, the damage to our country will be enormous," said CAUT's executive director James L. Turk

3 comments:

During the Depression following the crash of the stock market in 1929, the US government hired citizens, teachers, historians, to find, document and preserve photos, stories, folk songs, which are now in the Library of Congress and the National Archives. The WPA not only saved a part of history, but saved the workers. We all benefit when our history is preserved.

This might require a bit more digging to find out whether there is a problem. This seems to be a cause only of the CAUT which does not seem to like the Conservative government who they think has “worked at producing a cultural transformation” and worry that other “(f)unding cuts have decimated the social landscape.” They are now complaining about a “modernization project began last spring with a mandate to review how collections are acquired and preserved.” There may be a bit of unfounded hysteria here in their campaign and certainly a dislike of current politicians who are now in charge. I am sure they are concerned about preserving materials from Canada’s history but we need to separate what is real here and what is in the imagination of groups who just don’t like conservative policies.